PC restarts at the same time every day

Woolly One · 30-03-2009, 19:24

Hopefully there is an easy answer to this one. For some reason for the past five days, our secondary PC has decided to take it upon itself to restart @ 17:57 each day. It restarts fine - no error messages, etc as to why it restarted.

As far as I'm aware no changes have been made to the PC setup, and can't even find anything in Control Panel that would explain it.

PC is running on XP(home), SP3, with Avast AV.

I'm totally at a loss as to why this is suddenly happening.

Scrubbs · 30-03-2009, 19:28

Is it connected to ' ti'nternet, another pc or is it standalone, have you checked the error log (admin tools in control panel)?

CHiLL · 30-03-2009, 19:28

Go into Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks.

Is there anything scheduled to run at that time? Because a reboot might be scheduled. Is there anything scheduled in Avast to run at 17:57?

Woolly One · 30-03-2009, 19:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHiLL

Go into Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks.

Is there anything scheduled to run at that time? Because a reboot might be scheduled. Is there anything scheduled in Avast to run at 17:57?

Can't see anything 'new' in scheduled tasks. As far as I can tell nothing in Avast.

Also nothing in the event log - apart from the fact that windows restarted fine seven mins ltr. The PC is connected to t'internet, but no problems with our other PC which has the same wired connection.

SimpleSimon · 30-03-2009, 20:10

Does the PC shutdown properly before restarting? If so then it is likely to be something that is scheduled.

But if it doesn't shutdown properly then you need to look at what happens/scheduled just before this time.

The easy way to see if the PC has shutdown and then restarted normally is by looking at the System log in event viewer and see if you have 3 eventlog information events timed at this time.

Woolly One · 31-03-2009, 12:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleSimon

Does the PC shutdown properly before restarting? If so then it is likely to be something that is scheduled.

But if it doesn't shutdown properly then you need to look at what happens/scheduled just before this time.

The easy way to see if the PC has shutdown and then restarted normally is by looking at the System log in event viewer and see if you have 3 eventlog information events timed at this time.

Ok - got it, I think?!? Applications in Event Viewer show three events happening at the same time -

Warning - 4132 - %1 inconsistencies were detected in property store during recovery of %2.

Error - 4124 - Database corruption or Network issues (restart).

Error - 4126 - Database corruption (auto-recoverable).

These were timed nine mins after the event - however I'm only going on the restart timmings that No1 son gave me. So he could have got that wrong. He is usually chatting on Windows Live Messenger @ that time of day, but if he's using our other PC theres no problem.

Don't really know where to go from here - as both PC's are using the same AV, Ideas Please

icestar2 · 31-03-2009, 13:03

Have you tried going back to a restore point from before the problem occured ?

southwell · 31-03-2009, 13:26

You could try a scan disk in case there are bad sectors.

XP: http://www.ehow.com/how_2126653_run-...indows-xp.html

Vista: http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ows_vista.html

SimpleSimon · 31-03-2009, 17:42

Those errors/warning possibly relate to the Indexing service, therefore I suspect they are a red herring.

ginge51 · 31-03-2009, 20:17

Constant restarting computers normally means a cpu or gfx overheating problem?

Dai · 31-03-2009, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by ginge51

Constant restarting computers normally means a cpu or gfx overheating problem?

but overheating at *exactly* the same time each day seems unlikely..

I'd look more at a software issue.

icestar2 · 31-03-2009, 22:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

but overheating at *exactly* the same time each day seems unlikely..

I'd look more at a software issue.

Yep it would be alot more random if it was an over heating issue.

Dai · 01-04-2009, 06:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleSimon

Those errors/warning possibly relate to the Indexing service, therefore I suspect they are a red herring.

One site I found when googling did mention that this Indexing service error message can be caused by a hardware problem.
I'd guess that this means the index corruption could be caused by a faulty harddisk or even memory error.

bopdude · 01-04-2009, 07:31

You could turn indexing off to see if it still reboots at said time.

Open My Computer.
Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties.
At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.
A new window will pop up and select Apply to all folders and subfolders.

Let us know if it works .

tweetiepooh · 01-04-2009, 09:48

You could try a Linux Live CD that doesn't install anything on the PC. Boot that up, and keep it running around the normal reboot time. If it doesn't reboot then maybe confirm by booting from Linux and leaving going as the PC normally would as see if it reboots.

If it still reboots in both cases then maybe there is something in BIOS, if only in the second then it may be a heat sort of issue that build up and kicks off at that time.

Also are there any other timed events in the house around that time that may cause the PC to reboot due to power spikes/drops?